Educational blog articles around inbound marketing.

Inbound Marketing Definition and Examples of Inbound Marketing

Many business owners are adapting and integrating new online digital marketing trends that have evolved over the years. These marketing techniques provide a substantial competitive edge in today's marketplace.

One of the more popular online marketing trends consists of inbound marketing. This technique has gained popularity more recently and is now a very critical component for today's business owners and entrepreneurs.

Below is more information on what inbound marketing is and some examples of how you can implement this technique into your business practice.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a marketing approach designed to attract customers by using techniques that are helpful to them, addresses their issues and concerns, are relevant and often result in some form of engagement and customer interaction.

Inbound marketing is not intrusive or interrupting; but rather it allows potential customers to find you through various outlets, such as search engines, social media platforms or blogs.

Rather than using inbound marketing techniques to compete for your potential customer’s attention as with outbound marketing, it can be used to provide potential customers with what they need by addressing current problems and inquiries they may have.

This is done in a manner that attracts qualified prospects while building credibility and trust for many years to come.

What is the Buyer's Journey?

With the inbound marketing approach, you position yourself as a source of help for your target audience as you help them navigate throughout the buyer's journey.

Essentially, the buyer's journey refers to the different stages of the buying process. These different stages are broken up as awareness, consideration, and decision.

When a buyer is in the awareness stage it means they are aware of a problem they are having and are simply seeking help and information.

After the awareness stage comes the consideration stage. This is where the buyer has taken the next step and clearly defined their problem and is researching the possible ways to solve their problem.

When a buyer is ready to buy they are considered to be in the decision stage. This is where the buyer has weighed their options and is ready to choose a solution.

Examples of Inbound Marketing Techniques

Here are a few prominent inbound marketing techniques that are used by marketers and business owners alike:

SEO Techniques

Whenever a potential customer types certain words or phrases into a search engine, they are normally searching for information on a specific topic or product/service.

These searches contain what are known as "keywords" and "keyword phrases". Keyword targeting is a common SEO technique in which you optimize a page, such as a blog post, in order to rank for the keyword or keyword phrase you're targeting.

Keywords will yield different search volume as well as keyword difficulty. A keyword's keyword difficulty refers to how obtainable a first-page ranking position for that term is.

It's important to take in account both of these factors as well as relevancy to your content and what you have to offer when deciding which keywords you will actively target.

Content Creation and Content Marketing

Another common inbound marketing strategy consists of content marketing through various online platforms. The most common display of this can be found on websites in the form of copywriting and blog posts.

Website Content Creation

When keyword rich content is created for your website, it provides an opportunity for your website's various pages to be found by potential customers. This includes your home page, service pages, contact pages, and more.

Every page on your website contains some some form of content whether it be in the form of a video, text, images, etc. It's important to make sure the purpose of the content is clear and that it's relevant to what the page is about.

Ask yourself questions such as, why would someone visit this page? What value does this page provide? Does it provide information on a product?

This will help ensure your content remains relevant to the page's purpose and in turn will increase the user experience.

This approach not only allows potential customers to find what they are looking for, but it also helps them gain trust in your company, all while building credibility and hopefully loyal customers.

Blog Content Creation

Blogging is a great way to provide helpful content to and connect with your target audience and is the most common form of content marketing.

By creating blog posts that provide help or a solution to your target audiences problems not only are you portraying yourself as a thought leader, but your establishing a credibility and connection with your audience.

Blog posts can be written to address and help nurture buyer's throughout the buyer's journey. Typically falling under awareness stage content, blog posts can play a big role in lead nurturing campaigns when paired with other techniques such as email marketing.

Social Media Marketing

Business owners can make social posts containing relevant keywords that trigger a response from their potential customers. By creating timely and relevant posts on social media platforms you can stay up-to-date and engaged with your target audience.

You may also respond to the latest industry news and what’s trending. This will help you portray yourself amongst the thought leaders in your field and provide another way to connect and establish credibility with your target audience.

Another way to make use of social media marketing is by sharing content from your site. You can share blog posts, ebooks, and any other valuable content you have to spark engagement with your audience. If they found value in the content you've provided they are likely to share it as well.

Email Marketing

Email marketing campaigns can be a great addition to your ongoing marketing efforts. Once you've generated leads you can begin nurturing them throughout the buyer's journey with high-quality relevant emails.

There can be many uses for email marketing. Whether it be keeping your email list up-to-date with a friendly newsletter or providing information about a new content offer, emails play a major role in inbound marketing campaigns.

Paid Advertising

Paid advertising methods such as pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns on search engines and paid ad campaigns on social media, serve as a great addition to ongoing organic marketing efforts.

With pay-per-click advertising you only pay when someone clicks to your website or gives you a call. As long as your landing pages and sales processes maintain steady conversion rates, you will see substantial ROI with ppc campaigns.

With the targeting features social media advertising campaigns now provide, you can ensure you're getting your ad in front of the most relevant audience.

Combine those features with the amount of people using social media on a day-to-day basis, and you will be able to reach a substantial number of people while remaining focused in your efforts.

Closing

The examples mentioned above as well as other inbound marketing techniques, continue to prove effective for many companies.

By remaining relevant to your audience, targeting those who are already interested in your product, and nurturing buyers throughout the buyer's journey, you will be sure to maintain steady conversion rates and see positive ROI.

Interested in learning how inbound marketing could help your business? Click the link below to schedule a free consultation today!

I hope you found this information beneficial and feel free to comment down below any thoughts or questions you may have.

Nick began working with ZioSolutions in August 2016. Since then he has hit the ground running helping with the Inbound Marketing and Content Marketing strategies for ZioSolutions and our clients. Outside of ZioSolutions Nick enjoys staying up-to-date with the NBA and being an all around sports fanatic.